The circus is falling down on it's knees

Sunday morning at midnight, my uncle Paul was hit by a car.
___________________________________________________________
Largo man killed in DUI hit-and-run

CITIZEN STAFF

KEY LARGO — A Key Largo man was killed while trying to cross the Overseas Highway on foot early Sunday by a suspected drunk driver who fled the scene.

Paul H. Seagraves, 54, was crossing the northbound lane near Mile Marker 99.4 about midnight when he was hit by the side-view mirror of a sport utility vehicle. He was lying in the road, screaming for help, when an approaching motorcyclist who didn't see him ran over him, witnesses told deputies.

The SUV driver, Marco Antonio Mole, 50, of Houston, was charged with driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal crash. Mole ignored the pursuing deputy, but eventually turned into a parking lot and stopped, reports say. Mole admitted he had "just hit a guy in the middle of the road," reports said.

Mole said he'd had four vodka drinks an hour before the accident and fled the scene because he was scared, reports said. Troopers said Mole was unsteady, slurred his speech, had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol, reports said. He was taken to Mariners Hospital in Tavernier for an alcohol-blood test.

The 38-year-old Miramar man driving the 1997 Kawasaki motorcycle was not charged. Deputies say Seagraves was wearing dark clothes, it was cloudy, and there are no street lights where Mole hit Seagraves.
_________________________________________________________

My uncle Paul is who is commonly referred to as the black sheep of a family. He was injured while in service to his country in the early 80's, and soon after developed an addiction to pain killers. He's been a goner ever since. He's been mostly homeless or in jail since 1990, and I've only heard him once in the last 15 years when his speech wasn't slurred. Most of the family didn't speak to him, and we usually didn't know where he was, but mom did. We knew where he was living and tried to keep in touch, at times much to our chagrin. Last Christmas, '04, Paul decided he wanted to come and visit for a couple of days. It was nearly a disaster. He fussed and complained. Here's a man who was around 55 years old, no teeth (even though he could have gotten dentures from the VA for $100), thin as a rail and barely able to walk. Basically the same as having a three-year-old in the house, only more demanding and more moody. It was a tough 5 days, but I gave him grace, even though, because of our family history, I know he didn't "deserve" it. On the last day of his visit, before he was getting on a plane to go back to Key Largo, we were having a horrible day. Arguements, lost tempers, etc, but I stayed nice to him and kept the peace as best I could. My brother and I were installing mom's new chandelier that I got her for Christmas, when Paul came in the room with my guitar and sat down and began to play. Paul has been an awesome musician for as long as I can remember. He used to live in Nashville, and jammed with a bunch of musicians who hold legendary status, including Gregg Allman, Charlie Daniels, and Earl Scruggs. He recorded an album a long time ago, and he was awesome. Anyway...Paul comes in with my guitar and starts to play. He played some old boogie and blues tunes that he knew from long ago, and...

And then he plays this song. I don't remember much about it, but it was about God and...I remember John and I staring at each other. I remember this calm that came over the house, and how Paul poured his heart out into that song. Just like he always did. I guess just for a moment it felt like things were...normal, I guess. Like Paul could get a second chance on life, on family...

I just wish I had another chance to go and make him feel like family. It really sucks that he died the same way that he lived. Alone. And in pain.

I'm so sorry, Uncle Paul.

Stupid Smallville!!

I swear, that show is so freaking dumb! I don't know why I watch it every week. It's poorly written, it doesn't follow the comic, and tom welling is a piss-poor actor. me and kristen and andrew were watching the 100th episode tonight, and i was actually quoting what they were about to say. It's just gets really lame sometimes. I could honestly write the show better., but, you know, it's still fun.

So, I totally went to my college loan website in december and january and made my payments, and they totally didn't receive my payments, so i'm 73 days and $588 dollars behind. Fortunately, i apparently still have the money in my checking account, so i'm good. But still, i called the people today, and every single one of the people i spoke to were from pakistan. or some damn place. i was so mad. AND and and i have to pay MORE taxes for my car because i bought it out of state. so, i think i've finally found out that i'm allergic to something. money. i am allergic to having money. and that's that.

other than that, great day. really.

Rest in peace, Matilda Claire (1989-2006)

She was 16 years old. That's 80 in cat years, according to the vet.

Matilda was a calico. She was two months old when we got her back in '89. She was the sweetest cat ever. She loved, LOVED, me and my mom, and her friend Bailey. Bailey is my mom's basketball-sized, anvil-weighted gray tabby. Matilda also loved Jake very much, my mom's terrier who died mid year last year, and Daisy, our Boston Terrier who died when I was in college. Matilda was a contortionist. She could sleep in any position in front of the fire place, and she loved sleeping on top of the couch in the sun room. She was a licker. She would just sit there and lick. She would lick your hand, your face, your hair, Bailey, whatever. Licky lickerson, that was her. According to the vet, she got cancer in her hind legs, and one of her legs had actually broken. When mom came home last saturday night, Matilda couldn't walk anymore. People who aren't in possession of wonderful pets can't understand what it's like to lose one. It really is like losing a family member. I was 11, when we got her, and me and my brother used to terrorize her relentlessly. We would put her in a paper bag and shake her around, or trap her under a clothes basket. She loved it. She would fight back, and she got really good. We should have enrolled her in some cat-fighting, maybe won some money. I'm just kidding. Matilda used to catch birds in the yard and bring them up on the porch in triumph. One of her first friends at our house was our black siamese, Samantha. They were mortal enemies by day, girlfriends by night.

Matilda was good people. It was sad to see her limping over Christmas break, and we knew the end was coming soon. We actually caught it pretty soon, and mom was with her when they put her down. Mom explained to me what happened in detail, and I managed not to cry on the phone. It's sounds stupid right? A 27 year old guy crying about a cat? But, you know...

Anyway. I love you Matilda. If we could take pets with us, I would take you. You were a classy broad.

MAS T-shirts!

That's spanish for "more t-shirts!"
Special thanks to BustedTs.com. You guys rock.

Quality blogging? Check!

Silly titles? Check!

by the way, i love my subtitles. i don't know if any of you have noticed, but i always put in a subtitle. and i think hard about them. i want them to be clever, and i want some people not to get them so that i can feel intellectually superior. i'm really not, but i want to feel that way, so humor me.

oh, and the dot over the letter "i" is called a 'tittle.' hence the phrase, jot and tittle. and i'm willing to bet, of all of my readers, only will knew that.

okay. television. grey's anatomy, i've already mentioned. i have recently gotten back to scrubs. i would have gotten back to it earlier, but the season didn't start until two weeks ago. scrubs is most likely the best show on television, thanks to dr. cox. also, on tuesday nights, i have begun watching 'the shield.' this is quality television. good n' violent. thursday nights are grand. smallville goes on at 8. me and my friends get together and watch it pretty much every week, even though the writing is cheesy and the acting is all but totally horrible. still, it's about superman, and that rules. and then, 9 o'clock hits, and 'my name is earl' comes on followed immediately by 'the office.' these are two quality television shows that have broken the recent crap mold of sitcoms. i am now a faithful fan of both.

so, in the vein of television, here's a new top 5:
Name Your All-Time, Top 5 Favorite Television Shows (Situational Comedy only)
1. Friends
2. Sports Night
3. Scrubs
4. The Cosby Show
5. Seinfeld

ok people, we are all rooting for a steelers-seahawks superbowl matchup. i hope all of your mlk days were wonderful.

In honor of my last post...

More T-Shirts!!!

No seriously, I'ma do this!

MAAAma come on baby tell me what's tha word, a word up!

OK, now that I'm not traveling around anymore, I'm really gonna keep up.

1. Grey's Anatomy. I meant to tell Will the other night and I forgot, but basically I love this show now. The entire first season came and went and I never watched an episode, and then Sunday they played a recap of the whole year, and I DVR'd it and watched it three times. I will never miss an episode again. Favorite character: George.

2. Jack Johnson, Live at the Greek/Live in Japan. New DVD I got that I still haven't watched, but I'm so excited, I may pee a little bit.

3. GMAIL. Seriously, not name dropping. GMail.

4. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Kicking the crap out of King Kong since the latter's second weekend. Killer. Just killer. Seeing that ^^ sentence reminds me of a t-shirt I saw not too long ago. "Vermont: Spooning with New Hampshire since 1791." I want that shirt.

5. Infinite Crisis. DC's ongoing storyline right now. This is one of the most massively impressive things I've read in a long time. DC is beating Marvel right now. The real test will be this summer: X-Men 3 vs. Superman Returns. Good luck.

6. The Shield. Series premier last night. So good I stayed up too late to watch it. It is now in my must list. As is Thursday night on NBC and Scrubs, and I'd like to watch How I Met Your Mother.

Well, we have guests for dinner. Gotta go. And hey, you, I'll be your friend. ;)

The funny thing about the new year is...

resolutions become a joke. Quickly.

I have about four new year's resolutions this year. I've never really taken new year's resolutions seriously before, until this year, but I'm trying to flip that new leaf over on it's butt, and it weighs about 300 pounds. So I already broke one of them twice, but I'm holding strong on the others. And it sucks. I've NEVER wanted a coke so bad in all my life.

So, happy new year to me. I just read that Pedro the Lion is more than likely finished. TW left the group to go support his family, and Dave is going solo under his own name. But the good thing is that he is playing in Columbia at the end of this month, so I'll probably check that out.

Mr. Patrick Steed, say hello to Gmail. After years of the same email address(es), (I have two), i'm dumping them both for a new Gmail account. The others have become overrun with junk, so I asked Will to invite me over to Gmail. So, Gmail it is. Wow, I feel great about this Gmail thing. It's as if Gmail is helping me with that 300 pound leaf. And no, I'm not name dropping. See?

Gmail.

Oops. Sorry.

Anyway, THIS is actually the fourth of my resolutions. Keeping up the Wardrobe Door. See you around.